BOWLING GREEN — Ohio seemed poised to pull off its biggest upset of the season Saturday afternoon in the Stroh Center.
The Bobcats played their best 20 minutes of the season in the first half against the Falcons. Ohio battered Bowling Green with 3-pointers and stout defense, which stifled the Falcons’ top offensive weapons and put the Bobcats in position for a win that would’ve transformed the scope of the rest of the season.
But all their work was undone in the second half. Ohio lost its second meeting with Bowling Green 62-61 after the Bobcats struggled to overcome the Falcons’ hot start to the final half, which ended with Justin Turner sinking a mid-range jumper with two seconds to push Bowling Green ahead.
Ohio held Bowling Green to shooting 7-of-30 (23%) from the field in the first half, and the Bobcats went into halftime with a 39-24 lead. Ohio buried Bowling Green with nine 3-pointers and answered every key Falcons basket with big shots of its own.
But it never felt as though Bowling Green was out of the game. The Falcons entered Saturday as the top team in the conference, and a second-half surge seemed inevitable.
Ohio was not ready for it. The Falcons began the half with a 14-2 scoring run and took the lead with five minutes left after Daeqwon Plowden hit a layup and pushed Bowling Green ahead 53-52.
Ben Vander Plas gave Ohio another lead with a layup and free throw to push the score to 62-61 with 48 seconds left, but the Bobcats couldn’t stop the ball from reaching Turner, who was only 1-of-10 from the field before he hit the game-winning shot.
Trey Diggs, however, was the Bobcats’ biggest problem. The forward finished 7-of-10 from the field, and all of his shots came from 3-point range.
The Bobcats have four games left to recover and maintain their hold of a first-round MAC Tournament game at home when they return to The Convo on Tuesday to play Buffalo. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
